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What is the origin of the phrase "Given up the ghost"?

e.g. "After 10 years, my DVD player has finally given up the ghost."

Does it have a religious connotation?

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3 Answers

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Initially, I thought it's a bad translation from German, because German does have this slightly colloquial way of expressing that something breaks.

However, according to Wiktionary, the phrase is from the King James version of the Bible, Mk 15,37.

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So presumably it comes from the Greek, since that was the original language of the New Testament. – Urbycoz May 10 '12 at 14:49
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It has a religious source:

And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. — Mark 15:37

However, it doesn't have a religious connotation in everyday use.

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Which Bible translation is that? The NIV, NCV and NKJV don't translate it that way. – Urbycoz May 10 '12 at 8:24
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It's from KJ21 (21st Century King James Version) and the KJV. – tanantish May 10 '12 at 10:04
Yes, King James. – Matthew Frederick May 10 '12 at 16:55
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Ghost can describe a person’s soul or spirit (if you believe in such things), so if you give it up, possibly to some higher authority, you no longer have it and you die. Its use in that sense is very old, but the expression is probably more used now to describe less dramatic events, as in your example.

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Similarly, many electronic devices are powered by magic smoke. When the magic smoke leaves them, they no longer work. – mgb May 10 '12 at 15:46

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